Introduction: Representations in The Creative Arts of Southeast Asia, Negotiating Meanings and Identities

This collection of articles highlights issues related to the representation of social meaningsand identities in the production and reception of the creative arts in the Philippines, Indonesia,Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Burma. The articles illustrate that the creative arts aresites of dialogue which articulate diverse meanings to different audiences. They are forms ofrepresentation which generate new identities and provide spaces for artistes to speak. Artistesbecome agents of change as they negotiate their identities and respond to larger social issuesand forces such as gender, ethnicity, modernity, nation building, migration, global flowsof culture, militarism and authoritarianism. The articles exemplify ways of negotiating thedominant modes of power that prevail in Southeast Asia.